Chapter 201: Ke Si's Rise to Power (Part 3)

Yun Li had always thought Leng Xiao was simply a male with an outgoing, sunny disposition who, in private, liked to act a bit clingy with her.

But she had consistently overlooked one very important fact: since his older brother Leng Xiu was a beastman with no small amount of cunning and depth, how could he, as his younger brother, truly be a simple-minded beastman?

"How do you know where they store things?"

Hearing his female's question, Leng Xiao couldn't help but find it amusing. "You think my time in the Patrol Team was for nothing? After you mentioned that craftsmen in the workshop were privately selling handicrafts, I asked someone to look into it."

After all, it was something his female cared about—how could he possibly do nothing at all?

It was just that the direction of his and his brother's investigations differed. His brother looked into beastmen in the Market who might be selling the workshop's handicrafts, while he had people check whether any vacant houses near the Market showed signs of recent use.

Because if the quantity of handicrafts flowing out of the workshop was small, given A Li's usual level of busyness, she wouldn't notice at all.

So it could only be that a large quantity of handicrafts was flowing out, and among those handicrafts were quite a few items Yun Li considered very important.

Jewelry, clothing, and weapons—these three should be the first to be ruled out. The workshop's craftsmen weren't responsible for centrally producing the first two, and as for weapons, whether it was the Silver Eagle Clan Chief and the Priest, or A Li, their control over weapons produced by the workshop was extremely strict, especially for weapons with high lethality.

Apart from the few craftsmen led by Mu Qing, whom the Silver Eagle Clan Chief and the Priest absolutely trusted and who could see finished products, the other craftsmen, under A Li's arrangements, generally produced either semi-finished goods or component parts.

And with those three ruled out, that left pottery, bamboo paper, ink and brushes, and some practical woodwork items.

Among these, bamboo paper and ink and brushes—because not many beastmen in the Tribe were willing to learn writing of their own accord—were generally only used by beastmen in the Patrol Team, the Hunting Squad, and the Tribe's senior management, and these beastmen's family conditions were basically all fairly well-off.

Even if these two items entered the Market, the quantity sold wouldn't be very large.

Thus Leng Xiao very easily guessed what those beastmen were mainly selling at the Market: pottery and solid wood furniture, as well as cub toys that were very popular with many beastman families.

Since all three of these were rather bulky items, no matter whose home they were kept in, piling up too many would always be a burden, so Leng Xiao had people start by checking the vacant houses near the Market.

For the sake of convenient selling, and to avoid being discovered by the Market's Patrol Team that someone was selling large quantities of handicrafts produced by the workshop, the only place they could hide things was there—there was nowhere else.

"But how did you find where they hid things so quickly? I thought that since they were capable of doing something like this, they'd hide things more secretly."

It had to be said—Yun Li was genuinely caught off guard by Leng Xiao this time.

She had always assumed that because of his personality, Leng Xiao had a real knack for gathering information, but she hadn't expected him to perform this well when investigating matters like these.

"Find the right line of thinking, and finding it is only a matter of a day or two."

But as for the specifics of how he found it, Leng Xiao didn't say.

Because Yun Li didn't need him to explain it that clearly. After all, the hiding place had already been found; now they only needed to wait for Leng Xiu to thoroughly investigate all the beastmen involved in privately selling the workshop's handicrafts, and she could bring this matter to a complete close.

And using this incident, Yun Li could also reestablish the workshop's rules all over again.

……

That night, after Yun Li personally finished feeding the five cubs, she sat down with her four Beast Husbands at the stone table in the courtyard.

"Tonight, let's have a proper talk about Ke Si. Let me make one thing clear first: I do like Ke Si a little bit, but the reason I'm considering a Mate Bond with him is, apart from the cubs, because I value his status and position in Youbuluo.

Their Clan Chief also very much supports Ke Si marrying me. Only if Ke Si and I form a Mate Bond will she agree to share the route that Youbuluo knows about—a route different from the Silver Eagle Tribe's way out.

As far as I know, their Priest goes out once every few years, so I speculate that the route they use to go out leads to contact with beastmen whose strength shouldn't be very great.

And I very much want that route that Youbuluo knows about."

After Yun Li finished speaking, the atmosphere in the courtyard suddenly fell into a long silence.

And after a lengthy silence, Leng Xiao was the first to speak. "A Li, I'll say the same thing again: I don't agree."

He didn't agree! He wouldn't agree no matter what!

If she liked Ke Si, he wouldn't agree; now that he knew what she cared about wasn't Ke Si the beastman, but the conditions Youbuluo was offering, he disagreed even more.

Leng Xiao's expression was even darker than it had been that morning.

Yun Li looked at him for a good while without speaking.

The next to speak was Leng Xiu, but surprisingly, after hearing Yun Li's words, the opinion he expressed was actually in favor.

"I agree. He can form a Mate Bond with you, but he cannot move in, and he must raise his cubs himself."

Yun Li frowned and said, "Those are my cubs too, and Ke Si is a Blue Rank Beastman of Youbuluo. Even if he forms a Mate Bond with me, he can't possibly stay in the Tribe permanently for my sake."

"Then find a way to make him stay. The cubs are partly his responsibility too."

As soon as Leng Xiu said this, Leng Xiao stood up in a flash and reiterated his opinion, only this time he spoke to his brother word by word: "I don't agree."

"Whether you agree or not, you can't change the fact that Ke Si is the biological father of those three cubs."

Leng Xiu's face also darkened. "This is not the time for you to be stubborn."

"I'm being stubborn? Didn't you hear what she just said? What she wants most is that route, not Ke Si as a male!

If she genuinely liked Ke Si..."

Before Leng Xiao could finish, Leng Xiu coldly interrupted him. "If A Li genuinely liked him, would you agree?"

Leng Xiao fell silent for a moment, then ultimately gave a cold snort and left without another word.

His attitude still told Yun Li and the others one fact: even if Yun Li genuinely liked Ke Si, he still wouldn't agree to Ke Si entering their home.

Yun Li's gaze followed Leng Xiao until he walked into the house and his figure disappeared.

Only then did she press a hand to her head, somewhat wearily. "That route is very important to me, and as for Ke Si, I have a way to get him to agree to coexist peacefully with you."

"Mm, we learned about the new route today."

Ji Xuan hadn't opposed this decision of Yun Li's to begin with; knowing that she didn't much like Ke Si actually came as a relief to him.

He said understandingly, "If you think it's very important, then go form a Mate Bond with Ke Si. As for how to coexist peacefully with him?"

Mu Qing: "That's something for us males to worry about. You are our female head; these things shouldn't be your concern in the first place."

Leng Xiu looked at the two across from him, a smile on his face that didn't reach his eyes. "Right, A Li, go do what you want to do. As for A Xiao's side, as long as it's a decision you make, no matter how much he opposes it, he will absolutely never go against your decision."